


Paedophobia

by JadeDraggy2017



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Angst, Background Relationships, Background Tatsujun because fite me, Blood, Body Horror, Cannibalism, F/M, Female Kurusu Akira, Gore, Goro is not okay, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Murder, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Phobias, Slight Nudity, Stabbing, Support Groups, Therapy, Violence, baby horror, death in nightmares, every dream is its own little horror movie, found family phantom thieves, monster imagry, no beta we die like men, pregnancy horror, shit gets wild in Goro's nightmares, suicide imagry, there is a happy ending i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-13 21:12:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16479848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeDraggy2017/pseuds/JadeDraggy2017
Summary: Paedophobia: A fear of infants.Goro is going to be a father. Whether he's ready or not.Shuake Confidant Week; Day 4: Domestic





	Paedophobia

**Author's Note:**

> For the love of GOD READ THE TAGS BEFORE YOU GO INTO THIS.
> 
> Hey so, we've reached day 4. This is the actual prompt I worked out a whole story for. If you have read Sumaru City, you know how I am about fears and trauma. If you have not... This shall be a ride. Please god read the tags.
> 
> Okay now lets go ruin Goro.
> 
> @ me:  
> [tumblr](https://adraggynamedjade.tumblr.com/)  
> [@draggynamed](https://twitter.com/draggynamed)  
> 

  
  
  
“We’re going to be a family.”  
  
Goro couldn’t forget the moment Akira told him she was expecting. The woman had been cryptic with him all day. And Morgana kept snickering behind his back as he prepared for work. Throughout the day she sent him teasing text to hurry home, she had a surprise planned, and asked him odd questions on and off until he finally returned, and it was the first sentence out of her mouth.  
  
Akira and Morgana sat on the information all day, so it wouldn’t distract him at work. Just so they could celebrate together.  
  
And celebrate they did. He really did. He was excited to know that he was going to be a father. He was going to be able to do all the things his parents had failed to do. He’d be here to support Akira. He’d be here to love and take care of their child. He wasn’t going to abandon his family like Shido and Ayako did.  
  
He was excited just thinking about the baby.  
  
That’s what he told himself over and over again.  
  
That the strange way his stomach lurched when he heard the words ‘We’re going to be a family’ was just excitement. Anticipation. Joy.  
  
That the fact that every time from that point on the baby was brought up he responded first with a nervous laugh was just his, overwhelming joy getting the better of him. Every time they had to tell a new friend, he laughed, maybe a little too much.  
  
Everyone told him the same thing, they were happy to see he was happy. To know he was excited. It was no secret to their circle of friends that family was a hard subject for him. It was a hard subject for all of them. But they all told him the same thing: “You’ll do a better job than your asshole dad.”  
  
And he would. He had to. The anxious twitch in legs to start sprinting was just excess energy. His shaking hands were just restlessness. He was going to do a better job. Be a better person than them.  
  
Right?  
  
When he and Akira started looking for doctors, and his hands continued to shake as they looked through books about pregnancy and about the things that were going change in their lives. Taking in all the new information made his head spin or looking over pictures and diagrams of what was going to change about Akira’s body always made his stomach cramp.  
  
It was just because there was a lot to take note of. Even if he wasn’t the one pregnant he had a lot to do to help Akira and the baby. It didn’t matter that every time he even so much as thought the child he felt himself drowning in a cold sweat.  
  
He’s just worried he’ll mess up. The baby was fine… It’s not like it’d turn out to be something bad. Pregnancies are good things. Kids are good things. They’re not evil, or wretched, or monsters like Ayako told him.  
  
It would be fine. They would be fine. This would be different.  
  
After all they had each other, and they had Akira’s family to help them as well. When he couldn’t breathe while Akira invited her family over to their apartment to tell them the news he reminded himself that Akira’s fathers and grandmother were just very good huggers. The air had just been squeezed out of his lungs. Though he spent the entire visit telling himself to manually breathe, and smile, and look happy, it was worse than being on TV.  
  
But his wife wasn’t dumb. She knew when he was acting.  
  
“Are you alright, Goro?” Akira sked sitting on the end of their bed. She was watching intently, legs crossed and leaning slightly towards him. “The entire time my family was here you looked like you were going to throw up.”  
  
Goro rubbed the back of his neck and stared down at the floor, “Sorry I guess I just, didn’t agree with the curry we had. But I didn’t want to tell your family I wasn’t feeling well so-”  
  
“I told you to tell me if it was too spicy,” Akira shook her head. “Dad and Uncle Katsuya can eat straight fire if need be. I should have made you a separate batch.”  
  
“It’s fine…” He turned to look at her shaking his head. “I didn’t want to ruin anything. I’ll live.”  
  
Akira got up from her end of the bed and walked over to her husband. She leaned down and kissed the top od his forehead. “You’re so obsessed with not ruining things… I don’t want you to push yourself.”  
  
Goro reached up and wrapped his arms around Akira’s waist. He pressed his cheek to her stomach and felt his hands shake. This used to be comforting. But now his mind was alerting him to the fact that under her skin there was something brewing…  
  
“I won’t. I just, want to make sure everything turns out better than it did for me…”  
  
  
  
  
To make things better for his future family, that’s what Goro threw himself into focusing on. I helped curb some of that growing anxiety for the first few months. As long as he kept his attention on what he could do to prepare and as long as Akira’s pregnancy was just a word that they threw around, he could beat back the shaking, the nausea, the cold sweats and the reluctancy.  
  
But when Akira started to visibly show, it became harder to convince himself something wasn’t wrong…  
  
When he started to cry once Akira’s stomach started growing, it was joy that he felt pricking at his spine. He had to focus on being happy, to keep himself from realizing it was getting harder to hug his wife.  
  
And throwing up after her ultrasound appointment? Oh, he just ate some bad snacks from the fridge at work. He really shouldn’t have eaten that unlabeled dish. When he did it again at the news they were having twins that was just a fluke. His entire digestive system wasn’t openly rebelling at the thought of having two children.  
  
No.  
  
Never.  
  
He was happy. So happy. They were happy together. Nothing was wrong.  
  
Goro had told himself a long time ago he would do anything for Akira. To make his second chance at life perfect. To give back anything and everything he could to the woman that saved him. For the first person in his life to genuinely love him. So, what he was feeling had to be happiness.  
  
There was no way it was anything else.  
  
Until the first time he touched Akira’s growing stomach and felt the baby move. That was when it really hit him. That something was horribly wrong.  
  
Wrong with Akira being pregnant. Even though she seemed fine, it wasn’t right. It didn’t make him feel right. It made him afraid. And the knowledge that he was afraid made him unsure of what to do.  
  
Goro had promised Akira he’d be here for her always. He stated it the moment he got better after nearly being fatally shot. He promised her when she returned from juvie. He swore it on their wedding day. He would be there for her… But felt he couldn’t be there for those things growing inside her.  
  
The thought of them made him sick. So sick that he could barely think about them, that he barely wanted to touch her. That he dreaded being in his own home. Living his own life. They’re just kids. They’re not even born yet. But he knew in his heart they were monsters.  
  
But he couldn’t tell Akira that. He couldn’t tell anyone that. What would they say? What would they think?  
  
So all he could do was stay focused on making things perfect. Maybe if their born into a perfect environment they won’t be so awful? They won’t take everything from him? They won’t ruin Akira’s life?  
  
Goro resolved that was all he could do; just make everything perfect for Akira, and not let her worry about anything. After all the reason things went bad for Ayako was because she had to do everything herself right? So, if Akira had to do nothing then things would turn out fine?  
  
If that meant throwing himself into every chore around the house, then so be it. If he had to catch the last train home from running errands he would. If he had to stay up all night to take care of her he would. He would just anything to keep his mind of the growing infants inside her.  
  
Anything at all would do. And sometimes it worked.  
  
Just so long as others didn’t bombard him constantly with talk of the twins, and how excited he must be.  
  
A hard task to pull off when the children were all anyone ever wanted to talk about. All day, every day. Revolting questions form his coworkers, their friends, her family. Sometimes he could barely handle it. After thinking about them all day away form home and then knowing he had to return to his apartment and confront Akira and her swollen belly.  
  
At those times he had to stay away. He had to find solace somewhere, anywhere to purge the idea form his mind that his wife was incubating two little horrors.  
  
To be fair he put those monsters in there. So it was up to him to make sure things came out right.  
  
If anything he was afraid of the nightmare he’d created brewing in the person he loved and the tragic results he was certain they’d bring about.  
  
  
  
Goro arrived home late that evening. He hadn’t meant to. He wanted to be home on time, yet he allowed himself to be distracted by paperwork. Work that he had told Akira was urgent, but really it was just idol busy work that could be done at any time.  
  
He just didn’t want to be home right then. He just felt that he couldn’t. He had obligations and responsibilities and promises he told himself he would fulfill but that night he just had to stay away. It was another one of those bad days, where all he felt was dismay at the thought of coming home and seeing her. Seeing the person he loved, and knowing that she had a pair of monsters kicking around inside her.  
  
Goro stood just inside his apartment door. All the lights were off, but that was to be expected. He did come home extremely late. But the moment he entered he felt uneasy. He hadn’t expected his wife to go to bed before he got home. She usually waits up, despite how tired she is recently…  
  
“Akira?” He called out into the darkness of their home and was met with silence. He took a few tentative steps forward scanning the ground for Morgana. Though he knew that if the feline was lurking about in the dark he’d announce himself well before anyone could step on him. Still he stayed vigilant about it.  
  
He felt he needed to watch his feet, like if he didn’t he would step on something crawling across the floor.  
  
He passed through the front room before entering the hallway where the air felt hot and heavy.  
  
“Akira?” He called out again. This time he wasn’t met with silence but with a strange noise he could only describe as sticky. A bizarre squelching noise could be heard softly in the hallway. It grew louder every step he took toward their bed room.  
  
Goro put a hand on the door and pushed it open. The lamp next to the bed was on, and he could see Akira, sleeping on her side of the bed on her back. That long black hair that he loved to tangle his fingers in falling all over her pillow and over the side of the bed.  
  
Under the bed sheets right where her stomach was there was small mound moving about. To the side he saw Morgana lying on the floor curled up and covered in red. But that wasn’t worth investigating.  
  
The noise he was hearing was coming from Akira, from under the covers.  
  
“…Honey?” Goro walked over to the bed, paying no mind to the fact that his shoes stuck to a gooey substance all over the bedroom floor. He didn’t notice that the lamp light created large shadows on the walls that swayed back and forth like massive goliaths, their hands all raised and swaying as the white mask dotting their bodies cracked with wicked smiles.  
  
He stopped next to the bed and the gushing, gooey noise stopped. The movement stopped.  
  
Goro reached down and grabbed the top of the covers to pull them back with one swift yank. And as soon as they were gone he felt all the blood drain from his face.  
  
“A-akira!?”  
  
Sitting in a hole in Akira’s stomach was a thing. Pink and black and red with blood. Its body was small, and round, but its mouth was full of awful red teeth. A black and red mosaic swirled over its body and in its horrible clawed little hands it had what looked like a heart. Akira’s heart. It had clawed its way up through her stomach to grab it and was chewing on it. It lifted its head to look at him with big black and white swirling eyes. And then let out a disgusting high pitched, squeal of a laugh, and smiled.  
  
Goro started to scream. He tried to back up to his feet were stuck to the bloody floor. The creature dropped Akira’s heart and turned to face him standing up in her corpse on stubby, bloody little stumps for legs. It reached out for him, its clawed hands still glistening with Akira’s blood.  
  
“Dada!”  
  
Goro screamed and swung his arms wildly as he sat up in bed. The room was dark. He quickly whipped his head around taking in the surrounding area: he was in bed. Akira was next to him, Morgana was on the floor- freshly kicked off by his flailing. He reached over and grabbed the covers yanking them off his wife and stared wide eyed and frantic at her figure.  
  
She was still whole. One whole Akira, with a six-month enlarged stomach.  
  
He sighed.  
  
And Akira grumbled.  
  
“Goro.” His wife turned her head to glare at him, her expression a mixture of exhaustion and annoyance. “Why are you screaming?”  
  
“And kicking!” Morgana shouted from the floor. The cat jumped back up on the bed, his tail bent in anger.  
  
“S-sorry, I- I-” he paused looking down at Akira’s stomach. Her pajama top didn’t quite cover it all the way. Though Ann, Makoto and Haru had over indulged in maternity gifts, the bottom half of Akira’s stomach always seemed to poke out of any top she was given. He hated it. “…I had a dream you had the babies… And I- I- Well it felt very real.”  
  
Morgana shook his head, “And that merits screaming and kicking me off the bed?”  
  
Akira giggled and held out her hand for Morgana to move closer, so she could scratch his head. “He probably thought we were late to the hospital. You know Goro, everything has to be perfect for the babies.”  
  
“Yes,” Goro sighed and touched his forehead. He was certain he was sweating, but in the darkness of their bed room no one seemed to notice. “I was, trying to hit the gas of the car.”  
  
“You don’t own a car!” Morgana retorted, turning his hand away from Akira.  
  
“I did in the dream.” Goro leaned over to the end of the bed to grab the sheets and pull them back up. “I didn’t mean to wake you up, Honey.”  
  
“It’s fine,” Akira yawned. “I can sleep in anyway, you’re the one that needs the rest.”  
  
Goro laid down after he tucked the covers back around himself and his wife. Akira already seemed like she was back off to dream land. Morgana this time curled up at her feet. He had given up his spot on her stomach the moment they found out Akira’s was pregnant; usually he slept on Goro now.  
  
Goro however did not go back to sleep. He stayed up, rolled over on his side watching Akira. Watching her stomach.  
  
  
  
“You look exhausted,” Makoto pushed a mug of coffee across the desk space she shared with Goro. “You better take mine as well.”  
  
He was on his second cup that morning. He hadn’t slept at all last night, and barely any this week. And if he could put a number to the days with month, probably less than twelve hours total. Goro hadn’t slept this poorly since high school.  
  
But ever since Akira hit her second trimester he hadn’t been sleeping much at all. He couldn’t. He just kept having nightmares about the children. No, the monsters. The growing bulge in her body was really exacerbating his fears.  
  
“No, no, I’ll make it,” Goro pushed her coffee back over to her and turned his attention to the stack of papers on his desk. “I just, had a rough night…”  
  
“You’ve had twenty rough nights in a row… Do you want to talk about it?”  
  
Goro licked his upper lip before shaking his head. He didn’t even look over at Makoto.  
  
“Should I ask Akira about it?” She folded her arms and glared slightly at him. Even now, years later, she would still flex that ‘mom muscle’ to anyone in their group of friends that refused her help.  
  
“There’s no need. She’ll tell you the same thing… I’m just having a rough time sleeping. Over preparing for the kids you know?” He slightly shrugged his shoulders, hoping the answer would be satisfactory.  
  
“Goro-”  
  
“Detective Niijima?” Makoto and Goro both turned their heads to a clerk that stuck their head into their office door. “The chief needs to see you.”  
  
“I’ll be right there…” Makoto got up form her seat and pointed at Goro. “We’re not done.”  
  
He smiled at her as she got up, “I’ll tell you if you can beat me at a round of Featherman trivia.”  
  
“Make it about Buchimaru-kun and I’ll flatten you.” She tossed him a smile as she left.  
  
Goro sighed and leaned back in his seat. He’s long since left working for the SIU. Instead taking up a career as a normal beat detective. By luck- and Sae’s influence- he ended up working with Makoto. It wasn’t the ‘fabulous’ life style of high-profile cases and TV interviews. But working everyday crimes with Makoto actually made him feel more fulfilled. And for once he was solving them on his own merit.  
  
Still, as of late he was falling behind in his work. He couldn’t sleep, so he couldn’t focus. The closer and closer they approached Akira’s due date the more and more he couldn’t focus. How had this happened? Six months ago, he had convinced himself he was thrilled to hear Akira was pregnant. He spent the entire first month as eager and excited as their circle of friends talking about everything they would do to prepare for the baby.  
  
But the more and more apparent it became that there was a baby- no that there were _babies_ growing inside Akira the more and more he felt the world was unraveling before him.  
  
Goro put one hand on his stomach and one hand over his eyes.  Even just thinking about it he wanted to throw up. He couldn’t stop shaking.  
  
He hated the thought of them. The twins. The twins growing inside Akira. Two horrible little creatures. That he made. What had he ever made before other than monsters and chaos? Monsters growing inside of Akira. Akira. They were going to kill Akira. That’s what would happen. That’s what babies _do._ He should know.  
  
Goro put a hand over his mouth to choke back a suddenly heave from the pit of his stomach.  
  
He wasn’t getting anything done today.  
  
Before Makoto could return he packed up the some of his paper work to finish at home and grabbed his laptop and left.  
  
Maybe a trip to Leblanc would calm him down.  
  
  
  
  
Leblanc was the one place Goro could sit and not feel the sickening dread of his wife’s pregnancy looming about. Perhaps because the place was filled with so many other terrible memories for his mind to focus on. Yet in the face of the twin monsters coming into his life those old memories felt welcoming.  
  
He sat in the booth by the window slowly eating curry and sipping on a cup of dark roast blend. His suitcase sat in the seat next to him, with a brown trench coat draped over it. He’d outgrown wearing sweater vest, but he still wore his black gloves and button shirts, though he took to rolling up the sleeves now most of the time.  
  
Goro held his mug in both hands and sighed after every sip. He closed his eyes and started thinking about his high school days spent plotting murders, dipping in and out of a cognitive world, trying to kill his future wife, trying to bring down his bastard father, feeling like a fool when he woke up injured and barely able to stand in Akira’s bed.  
  
The memory of it made him shudder. By all means in that moment she could have done anything to him. Turned him over to the cops, killed him herself for all the trouble he’d caused, or even just leave him to suffer with his injuries. He hadn’t expected her drag in some strange back alley doctor and insist she treat him in secret. And he sure has hell didn’t expect her to leave him there to heal while she took the fall for all the mayhem their dealings in the cognitive world had caused.  
  
But then again, Akira always did subvert his expectations.  
  
“Hey!” Goro opened his eyes at the sound of Futaba’s voice shouting him form across the table. The red head at invited herself to sit down. She put her elbows up on the table and let her face rest in her hands. “This ain’t a bed and breakfast, Akechi!” She teased. “Wake up!”  
  
“Sakura, shouldn’t you be taking care of the customers?” He responded dryly.  
  
“We’ve got none! Some where going to come in but then they saw the shaggy haired hobo sleeping in the booth and took off.”  
  
Goro scoffed at her statement and rolled his eyes, “Fine I’ll stay awake.” He set down his mug and smiled at her. “If there are no customers, you should at least be studying? Don’t you have a thesis to write?”  
  
“Pffft” Futaba stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes. “I finished that last week! Not like it matters, I know more than my professor. I should be grading him!”  
  
“Not everyone has had the chance to dive into the cognition of mankind and psychoanalyze people.”  
  
“Whatever, Goro,” she rolled her eyes and put her phone on the table screen up, “Let’s talk less about brains and well- okay no it’s still about brains! I want to show you this!” She sild the phone over to Akechi so he could look at the screen. On it he saw a sales listing for sounds tracks every Featherman season in one complete set.  
  
“Not sure what this has to do with brains…” Goro tilted his head. “That’s a bit pricey, can’t you just pirate it?”  
  
“Okay, first of all, always support Featherman. _Always._ And second it’s not for me! It’s for Akira!”  
  
“For Akira?” Goro eyed her confused. “Why? She doesn’t care about Featherman.”  
  
“For the twins!”  Futaba pulled up her headphones form the seat next to her and put them on. “Playing music for babies helps! They hear everything going on outside! It can even affect their development… So, you’ve got to start now!” She started striking sentai poses in her seat. “Start having them listen to Featherman! Teach them the ways the Phoenix Rangers! The passion of the Victory Rangers! Let them feel the dedication of the Ashes Team!”  
  
Goro laughed at her, but he felt himself forcing it. Of course, this was about the babies. Just when he thought he’d gotten away.  
  
“You know Akira’s not going to enjoy you… Trying to pre-program our children to be nerds right?”  
  
“Um, pardon you! You _ARE_ a nerd. Those kids are doomed to be into something geeky.”  
  
  
  
Doomed.  
  
Such a fitting word, but how could Futaba know that? Doomed is what Akechi felt going into he seventh month of Akira’s pregnancy. He sat in the chair in the doctor’s office watching Akira and the doctor go over their children’s development. Occasionally he would nod or answer that he understood when spoken to. But really, he could barely hear what they were saying.  
  
It all sounded like muffled noise. Like there was a glass wall between himself, the doctor and Akira.  
  
Akira.  
  
He couldn’t take his eyes off her. The way she always held her stomach now made him retch. Not because she was disgusting. But because he knew she was lovingly stroking a pair of ticking time bombs.  
  
Doom.  
  
Every time she rubbed her stomach he felt his churn. It gurgled with unease and tossed bile up to the back of his throat.  
  
They’re nothing but doom.  
  
The thought of them made his arms shake. He could barely keep himself steady. He had to hide it by folding his hands together and looking down at the floor. Watching her made his chest tight and his eyes heavy.  
  
They’ll kill her. He’ll lose her. And then he’ll be stuck with them.  
  
Goro had to inhale and hold it to keep himself crying in front of his wife and the doctor. He had to stop this. He had to stop this on coming doom.  
  
“You’re being really quiet lately,” Akira swung her feet around to the side of the exam bed. It was time to go. Goro got up and grabbed her hand. He had to push it all aside, back down into his stomach. Maybe there was doom approaching, but for now he could just enjoy Akira.  
  
“Sorry, I guess I’m just… Thinking about the future a lot.”  
  
“More like worrying about the future.” Akira let out a little sigh as she got to her feet and let her weight adjust. “I swear these kids are stressing you out more than they are me!” She raised a hand and flipped Goro’s bangs. “If you don’t stop being so tense your hair is going to turn grey and I’m going to leave you.”  
  
Goro laughed. He continued to hold her hand and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders. He couldn’t wrap his arms around her middle any more.  
  
“I can just dye it you know.”  
  
“But I’ll _know_ that you dyed it!” Akira leaned into his side as they walked out of the room. “And I won’t stand for it.”  
  
“Then I’ll shave it off.” Goro squeezed her hand.  
  
“Ugh! And look like your deadbeat father! Never. I’ll kill you before I let that happen.”  
  
Goro laughed, he couldn’t help it. “So that’s what it takes to earn death at your hands? Looking like Shido? Remind me to never buy orange shaded glasses.”  
  
“And never shave your head.”  
  
  
  
“Akira, look here!” Ann waved her hand up in the air trying to get Akira’s attention. Goro turned his head to watch the blond excitedly hold up two stuffed cats. “These are perfect right?”  
  
Ann was, in Goro’s opinion, perhaps more obsessed with buying things for their twins than any of their friends. At every chance she got she used her modeling collections to get her hands on designer baby goods, or get them gift cards to fancy stores.  
  
In this case she had once again used her ties to take them on a little shopping spree in a ‘designer kid’s toy’ store.  
  
Goro had originally thought to stay home, but somehow ended up along for the ride.  
  
Which meant uncomfortably walking around the aisle with his wife. Surrounded on all sides by little kid toys, and stuffed animals, and baby products. Not to mention having to pass by the occasional other parent and their infant.  
  
He kept his hands in his pockets and just focused on breathing.  
  
Goro followed Akira over to where Ann was picking through a pyramid of stuffed animals.  
  
“These cats look just like Morgana!”  
  
“Ugh, they do not!” Morgana poked his head out of Akira’s bag. “I’m not that fat!”  
  
“I don’t know…” Goro looked down at the cat, “I think in the years Mementos disappeared, and you haven’t had to run around the underground, you’ve put on some pounds.”  
  
“What!” That cat jostled in the bag.  
  
“Honey, don’t tease him.” Akira put her hand on the cat’s head. “And, Mona, stop fussing, you’ll get us tossed out.”  
  
Listening to Morgana grumble about his weight was the one thing that put a smile on Goro’s face. He closed his eyes and hummed to himself while the girls picked through the stuffed toys. It was easier not to think about his surroundings if he didn’t have to see them.  
  
Unfortunately for him, with his eyes closed he missed the woman coming around the corner that bumped into him with a baby stroller. Goro stumbled forward and caught himself just as she apologized.  
  
“Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry!”  
  
He turned around, ready to tell her it was fine, but when his eyes fell on her his blood ran cold. She wasn’t just pushing any baby stroller, but one with a set of twins in the seats.  
  
“Oh no, we’re sorry!” Akira spoke up for him, “We didn’t mean to block the aisle!”  
  
Goro kept his eyes on the kids. One of them was looking up at him. Their mouth slightly open, drool running down the side. The conversation Akira and the mother were having seemed so far away.  
  
“Oh! Your kids are so cute!” Ann chimed in.  
  
“Why thank you! They’re six months old…”  
  
Goro felt his lip twitch looking at the kid. It opened its mouth stuck all four fingers into it, covering them in saliva.  
  
“-We’re expecting twins too-”  
  
“…Oh it’s a lot of work…”  
  
Somewhere along the line Goro had stopped focusing on his breathing, which meant he had stopped breathing all together. Watching the little kid gum at his hand and rub spit all over his face made him feel slimy. He was sure his lips were twisting into a frown.  
  
Akira and the mother were talking about something? Akira wanted to hold one?  
  
His hand shot out and he grabbed his wife’s arm, “No!”  
  
The three women stopped and stared at him. Goro’s face was pale.  
  
“We, you don’t want to hold her up, Dear. And I want to get home and make you dinner before it gets to late!”  
  
“Oh, come on, Goro,” Ann whined. “She just wants to hold one.”  
  
Goro stilled held onto Akira’s arm.  
  
“It’s alright,” he turned his attention to Akira, she was studying him carefully. To Ann and the woman, it probably looked like she was just smiling thoughtfully, but he knew that disarming smile. She was taking in his reaction… Goro let go. “It’s true I’ve been feeling tired today. But thank you for the offer…”  
  
Akira pulled Goro aside, so the woman could pass by.  
  
He watched her walk around hem and looked back at Akira.  
  
She didn’t say anything, she just stared at him.  
  
And for a moment he shuddered. He knew she saw through him for just that moment. He wouldn’t let it happen again.  
  
  
  
  
In the past Goro and Akira had rotated who made dinner, but since he accepted that her pregnancy was disturbing him, he made it a point to do all the cooking while at home. He didn’t want Akira on her feet if it could be helped. The only job she kept after high school was working for Sojiro at Leblanc, he also refused to let her work once she was half into her second trimester.  
  
So that meant she could rest and relax at all times. It was his dying hope that if absolutely nothing went wrong during the pregnancy that the twins would not be too horrible. After all money wasn’t a problem, so if only he worked they didn’t lose anything. So why make her stay on her feet all the time?  
  
It wasn’t until they were out of high school that Goro learned Akira never really needed to work to begin with. She had to take odd jobs during her probation and kept it up senior year out of ‘fun’. Akira had convinced her family to let her graduate form Shujin, so she could stay close to her new friends- and subsequently him.  
  
They agreed, and while the rest of former phantom thieves had told him they met her fathers during their initial road trip to her home town, and that they seemed pretty well off, no one really understood how well off they were until Akira invited them to celebrate graduation at her grandmother’s house.  
  
Goro still remembered how loudly Ryuji screamed at the ‘little country cottage’ they were staying at for the week. Three floors, everyone got a room to themselves- if they so desired, a pool, a private mountain trail, a media room that was basically a personal theater. Well, Akira’s grandmother was an actress, so he supposed the personal theater to re-watch all her movies made sense…  
  
He sighed. Again, he was diving into the past. Diving into moments gone by to get away from the present. To get away from the kids.  
  
He had to focus on the things that were to keep himself from running screaming from their apartment in agonizing fear. It didn’t help that Ann and Ryuji were over talking loudly about the babies.  
  
Ann had gotten a ton of designer clothing for the kids during their outing earlier. He had to admit from what he saw they looked cute. Little black, white and red outfits. Kitty pajama onesies. A wide range of clothes for summer, spring, winter, and all in different sizes to accommodate how fast children grow.  
  
The clothes were cute, and just another reminder that they were getting closer to the due date.  
  
“Yo, dude!” Ryuji came stomping into the kitchen leaving Akira and Ann to keep going through the new baby clothes. Ryuji slung an arm around Goro without hesitation; the action made the brunet grumble a bit as he was holding a knife at the time. “You want me to help with any of this, so you can go help put away the clothes?”  
  
Goro rolled his head, “No. It’s better for Akira if I focus on dinner.”  
  
“Is that so?” Ryuji reached out and grabbed a bit of the diced vegetables and popped it into his mouth. “I got ‘a tell you, man, I’m sure as hell glad its you and Akira having kids first.”  
  
“You are?” Goro scoffed.  
  
“Hell yeah! You guys are going to be the ‘test’ couple, you know? We’re all going to watch what you do and when you fuck up, try to remember what you did wrong, so we can avoid it!”  
  
Goro shrugged Ryuji off, “Does Ann know you feel that way?”  
  
“It was Ann’s suggestion!” Ryuji shouted back.  
  
“You two are _disaster_ ,” Goro pointed his knife at him. “You’re talking about learning form our mistakes! You’re the one who threw out the crib instructions when you were supposed to be helping me!”  
  
“Well now I know not to build the crib myself!” Ryuji threw his arms open, “See! I’m learning from your errors already!”  
  
Goro rolled his eyes, “When you and Ann have kids I plan on taking my family on a vacation across the country.”  


  
  
Across the world was where Goro wanted to be right now. Instead he was sitting in the delivery room in the waiting area. The area was dark save for the red light shinning down over his head. No windows, no other chairs, not even a reception desk.  
  
Just him and the red light and the tile floor.  
  
Despite being out in the waiting room he could hear everything going on in the delivery rooms. There was a door to his right where he could hear Akira screaming. Her voice strained and cracking as she pleaded for the doctors to make it stop. Her cries rang in his ears. She was sobbing in broken gasp and struggling to breathe. From the door to his left he could hear men and women shouting; the nurses and doctors calling out to each other, spouting off various magic spells he recognized the names of from his time in the Metaverse.  
  
Kougaon.  
  
Eigaon.  
  
Samsara.  
  
Mamudoon.  
  
They called out orders, demanding to find a weakness. To break through the enemy’s attacks. It sounded like it was going poorly. Slowly he noticed the number of voices calling out spells was lessening. At the same time Akira’s sobbing was fading away. Steadily the noise from each door decreased until there was only silence.  
  
Goro swallowed and looked to his right and left.  
  
He got up and approached the door to the right. As he did so some of the darkness twisted up into the black body of a woman with a white domino mask and a pink nurse uniform.  
  
“I- I want to see my wife.”  
  
“Her name?” Her voice echoed around his head.  
  
“Akechi, Akira.”  
  
The nurse flipped through a clipboard that suddenly appeared in her hands. She nodded once and opened the door behind her.  
  
Once open Goro was bathed in a velvet blue light. He slowly walked forward into the blue hospital room. Overhead a broken florescent lamp swung, the room was lined with white plastic bars decorated with childish stickers of clouds, unicorns, birds, bunnies and other baby animals. There was a hospital bed in the middle of the room covered in a puddle of red and blood ooze that dripped onto the floor.  
  
Goro looked at it, feeling his entire body shudder.  
  
“A-Akira?”  
  
“Over here.” He turned his attention to the far end of the room. He heard Akira’s voice calling to him. As he approached re realized that on this side of the room the plastic bars were not up against the wall, but instead being used to section off a dark section of the room.  
  
“Honey…Where are you?”  
  
“Right here, Darling.”  
  
He stopped next to the bars and looked into the darkness. Slowly he could see Akira’s face come into view. Her big grey eyes looking out at him affectionately a sweet smile painted across her face.  
  
He sighed with relief, “Oh, oh thank god!” Goro put his hands on the bars and leaned forward. “You’re alright!”  
  
“Yes! And so is our baby girl! Do you want her to hold you?”  
  
“To hold me?” Goro shook his head confused. “Don’t you mean I should hold her?”  
  
Akira laughed at him. As she did so another laugh joined in. High pitched and short, it shook the entire room.  
  
“No, of course not…” Akira moved closer to the bars and more into the light. Goro recoiled at the sight of his wife. She was naked, with her long hair dangling down in front her swollen breast. Half of her body was suspended in the air, form the torso down she was attached to the stomach of a large drooling infant. “You see I’ve carried her for nine months, so it’s only natural she’ll return the favor!”  
  
Goro covered his mouth as his eyes grew wide. He backed up and looked up at the face of the baby. Its mouth opening and closing as its tongue smacked against its gums.  
  
“Come on then! Come join us! Let her carry you!”  
  
The baby let out a series of unintelligible noises before laughing and trying to reach through the bars for him.  
  
Goro screamed and backed up as it’s giant hand came down. When the baby missed him, she started to cry.  
  
“Shh! Shh! It’s okay, sweetie! Daddy didn’t mean it!” Akira reached back to pat the baby’s stomach. “Goro! Hold still for your daughter!”  
  
“No! NO!” Goro scrambled away. Behind him the baby cried louder and shook the bars of her cage. Akira screamed at him to come back, but Goro was already out of the hospital room and slammed the door shut.  
  
“I-I need help! I NEED HELP!” He frantically looked up and down the hallway, but only saw darkness on either side of him. From inside the hospital room he heard the baby smashing through her plastic bars. His only option was the room across form him.  
  
He pushed off the door and sprinted over, slamming his foot into he door to open it. However inside he was met with a room full of corpses. Bodies of doctors and nurses stacked on one another, twisted and crumpled up together. Each with their own unique mask and scattered over their bodies were black feathers covered in blood.  
  
“Oh god… Oh god- Somebody! Is there no one left!”  
  
“H-here-!”  
  
Goro stumbled over the bodies to find one doctor still alive. The man was coughing up blood and the mask on his face was cracked in two.  
  
“Oh god, oh god! What happened here?”  
  
“We tried to stop it…” The man coughed in Goro’s arms. “It’s too much… We couldn’t get rid of it…”  
  
“What? Get rid of what!?” Goro hung onto the man. He didn’t know him, but he felt like crying over his pain.  
  
“That monster… That… monster…” The doctor slowly lifted his hand and weakly pointed toward the ceiling. As Goro turned to look up the man died in his arms. Over head there was a small black creature crawling around on all fours. It had odd, malformed wings sticking out of its back and ribs and arms, all covered with black feathers.  
  
As if it knew Goro was looking at it, the creature stopped crawling around and looked down at him, revealing its misshapen face. It had no nose, no ears, but a mouth and several red eyes of various shapes and sizes. There had to be at least seven, all blinking in session with black and white pupils. Over its head it had a little gold halo, adorned with seven gold wings slowly turning counter clockwise.  
  
Goro felt his bottom lip tremble as the creature looked at him. He didn’t move. He didn’t breathe.  
  
And then suddenly it screamed, letting out a horrible shriek like a bird. Its entire body shook, and the half-formed wings trembled as more feather’s fell from its body. Goro screamed in turn and dropped the man’s body. He got to his feet and scrambled for the door, tripping and clawing over the corpses at his feet.  
  
Over head he heard the creature clawing about, the sound of its movement sounded like scratching metal on pavement.  
  
He got to the door just as he heard a thud behind him where the monster had dropped down.  
  
Goro didn’t have time to close the door, he just kept running. Out in the waiting room, his daughter and Akira had broken free from their prison.  
  
“Goro!” Akira called to him, she reached out to him, smiling sweetly. “Goro, come here! Come be with your family!”  
  
“G-get away from me!  Stay back!” At his screams the baby started crying. Goro turned and ran down the hall. Behind him he could hear Akira telling their daughter to follow him. Her footsteps were loud and heavy, every single one made the hall shake. Along with her he heard the scratching of the monster following as well.  
  
“Stay away from me! I don’t want this!”  
  
“Goro! We’re your family!” Akira called after him. “Don’t run from your children!”  
  
“They’re not my children!” He stumbled in the darkness and rolled over. Suddenly the monster jumped onto his stomach and started screeching at him. He balled up his fist and tried to beat it off. “You’re not my children!” He screamed with tears in his eyes. “Get away from me! Get away!”  
  
“But, Goro, these are your children!” Akira’s face came into view, and behind her the big smiling, drooling mouth of their littler girl.  
  
“They’re monsters!” Goro screamed at Akira.  
  
She laughed, “Well of course they are! What other kind of child could _you_ possibly have?”  
  
Akira looked up and nodded at the girl. She let out a laugh and reached down to grab Goro’s body. He started to scream and kick and fight as he was picked up off the floor.  
  
The baby kept laughing.  
  
The monster kept screaming.  
  
And Akira just smiled.  
  
Goro pushed himself so hard he fell of the bed and hit the ground shoulder first.  
  
Morgana jumped up startled by the sudden fall. He scrambled to the side of the bed and looked over at Goro. He stayed on the ground in shock, gasping for air as he tried to piece together where he was.  
  
“Are you alright?” The feline asked.  
  
“I’m- I’m fine I-” Goro swallowed hard and got up. His hands were shaking. “I just… I just had a dream about Akira’s delivery, that’s all.”  
  
The cat shook his head, “You’re really jumpy about these babies, huh? Are you that worried the delivery is going to go badly?”  
  
Goro peeked over the side of the bed to see Akira was still sleeping. At least he hadn’t woken her.  
  
“I just… I want everything to be-”  
  
“-perfect. We know.” Morgana flicked his tail in annoyance. “Well it won’t be perfect if you keep panicking. You need to rest! Akira needs you to rest. If you’re falling apart all the time how are you going to take care of her?”  
  
“I know…” He sighed as he got up. “I’ll try to sleep more soundly.”  
  
“Good.” Morgana backed up to allow Goro to climb back into bed. The cat curled up at his feet. “Goro.”  
  
“Yes, Morgana?”  
  
“Maybe you should try some hot tea before bed. It could help.”  
  
“Maybe… Maybe.”  
  
  
  
  
It was easy to keep calm while painting. Maybe because it required no thought?  
  
Just dip the roller in the paint and go back and forth. Up and down. Side to side. And dip again. It was so easy, so relaxing. Goro should have let Yusuke over to pain the nursery ages ago.  
  
The artist had been sketching up a mural he wanted to paint on the twins’ walls. He’d gone through several ideas and proposed them to Akira, and while his wife had liked several of them it was actually Yusuke who changed his mind every time at the last minute.  
  
Goro wondered if he would ever not be an enigma?  
  
“I must admit,” Yusuke’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. At some point he’d stopped working on his wall and stopped to watch Akechi. He was standing in the middle of the room, his brush dripping paint onto the carpet… “You have a good form for broad strokes. Your coating is spectacularly even. Perhaps I should have you assist me in applying base layers to canvases in the future?”  
  
Goro rolled his eyes, “I’m just mindlessly moving.”  
  
“Sometimes art happens in the most mindless of activities. While performing a simple routine inspiration strikes!” Yusuke flung his brush and Goro watched a deep blue pain splatter arch across his clean white wall.  
  
Yusuke didn’t seem to notice.  
  
“Or perhaps you are so driven for perfection, that even in this simple motion you strive to create the perfect environment for you brood.”  
  
“Brood?” Goro’s eye brows raised. He didn’t like that. It made them sound like insects… And they practically were. “Let’s not call them brood shall we.”  
  
“Well have you considered names yet?” Again, Yusuke made a gesture with his hand and more paint dripped on the floor. Goro’s eyes followed it down and he bit his lower lip. They had put down several protective plastic sheets and yet Yusuke just choose to stand in the middle of the room where there was no covering.  
  
“No,” Goro took a deep breath, “Not yet. Akira is still thinking about names…”  
  
“Then without a namesake titles will have to do. They are your brood! Your kin! Your off spring! Your seed!” Yusuke punctuated every title with a flick of his wrist. Blue paint continued to decorate the room, some even landed on Goro.  
  
He closed his eyes. All of these ‘titles’ made them sound inhuman. Maybe it was a bad idea to help Yusuke paint the nursery.  
  
“Can we just call them my children? I like ‘children’.” He opened his eyes, the paint roller was now shaking in his hands. His nerves were crawling with new images of horrific monster brood children swarming over his wife.  
  
“As you wish then! Your dedication to creating the perfect environment for your children is outstanding.”  
  
“Thank you, Yusuke…” Goro sighed and turned his attention to the mural the other man was working on. Yusuke had painted a magnificent deep blue night sky. He was waiting on it to dry before he started sketching out his plans for constellations across it. He’d finally settled on the idea of painting a unique galaxy around the room. The constellations would be a crown, a woman, a yen, an Egyptian eye, a space ship, a casino wheel, a boat, a crow, and a chalice. They’d be positioned around the room and overhead he’d paint a swirling sun, like a light peering down over a darkened heaven.  
  
The kids would probably never understand, but the rest of them would.  
  
Akira had asked the somehow what Yusuke painted reflect all of them. And that it should be something they could add to for the future. More stars could be added for the kids as they grew older.  
  
More lights in the sky. A brighter future. Mixed in with their tangled past.  
  
The idea of it almost made Goro feel at peace.  
  
He resumed his work, now having to paint over Yuskue’s splatters. But this time his hands shook as he rolled over the walls surface. His mindless calm had escaped him and was now replaced with the terrible knowledge that his children were a brood.  
  
And he feared they were just waiting to be born to eat him alive.  
  
  
  
Eight months in to Akira’s pregnancy and Goro felt sick all the time.  
  
He couldn’t really hide it or explain it away any more.  
  
A fact that Haru made a point to drill into him that afternoon.  
  
“You are coming with me! I’ve already told Akira you’re not well and she agrees!”  
  
“I don’t need a doctor…” Goro grumbled as he stood outside Haru’s car. He knew she wouldn’t take no for answer. She was like Makoto, maybe a bit scarier. No longer and ‘heiress’ and now her own corporate mogul Haru had learn to put her Noir personality to work in board rooms and in meetings with investors. And when needed, she pulled with her friends.  
  
“You will need a doctor, if you don’t get in this car. Because I’m going to make sure you can’t walk home if you refuse me one more time Akechi, Goro.”  
  
“…” Goro lowered his head before quietly getting into the back of Haru’s limousine.  
  
Once they were on the road he started talking again. “So where are you taking me?”  
  
“We’re going on a spa day!” Haru clapped her hands together.  
  
“A spa?” Goro’s eye brows raised a bit. He hadn’t been out to a spa since college. Ann and Haru actually used to take him along constantly. Even Yusuke came once. “What for?”  
  
“I told you!” Haru shook her head with a slight light, “Because you’re unwell! You’re tense! You need to relax. Akira’s told all of us you’ve been so wrapped up in trying to make sure everything is ‘just right’ for the twins that you are not taking care of yourself.”  
  
“Oh…” Goro slumped into his seat. It was true lately he had put himself into overdrive on caring for Akira. Some small part of him still clung to the idea that if he just focused on making everything as ready and as perfect as possible that maybe he would stop feeling sick about what was coming. That mean he slept less but sleeping less meant less nightmares. It also meant he was more run down. He wasn’t sleeping. He had trouble keeping food down. He could barely keep himself together at work. And he was now struggling at home to do all the things he promised Akira he’d take care of, so she wouldn’t have to.  
  
Over all, he supposed he had failed. He had only accomplished making his wife worry.  
  
“A nice day of relaxation, away from Akira and the preparations for the kids will do you some good.”  
  
“But, Akira really shouldn’t be doing much right now… Who’s going to stay home and help her?”  
  
“Yusuke is!”  
  
Goro reached over for the handle of the limousine door. “Let me out!”  
  
“Stop that!” Haru grabbed his hand laughing, “God you and he always try to jump out of cars!”  
  
“With good reason!” Goro allowed her to pull his hand back as he chuckled. He sighed and rolled his head back. “Maybe… Maybe it will do me some good to get away for the day.”  
  
Haru nodded, “And maybe you’ll want to talk about it after you’re relaxed?”  
  
“Talk?”  
  
“Yes, talk,” Haru nodded at him. “About your stress. Akira says you normally talk to her but lately you clam up. I’m sure you don’t want to stress her out because of her pregnancy, but I think you should talk to one of us, Goro. I would hope that after all these years you’re not… You’re not pushing us away again.”  
  
“No I’m not, Haru.” Goro shook his head and pushed himself to sit up a little straighter. “I’m sorry I’m making you all worry. I guess I’m just- over whelmed with what’s coming.” He offered her a simplistic explanation of his fears. It wasn’t a completely lie. He wasn’t pushing her away. He just didn’t know how to tell her he was terrified of his own future children.  
  
“That’s understandable.” Haru nodded, “I’m sure all first-time father’s feel overwhelmed. And you have two on the way no less! But it’s important to remember, you and Akira aren’t facing this alone.”  
  
“I know,” Goro sighed and looked down at his lap.  
  
“We’ll help in any way we can!” Haru reached out for his hands again, this time taking both of them into her’s and squeezing. “We will help you, Goro. You know I will! I’ll drop everything to come help you… You just need to ask.”  
  
Goro turned to look at her. He pressed his lips together and blinked several times as he fought back tears.  
  
He just needed to ask.  
  
Noir had said the same thing to him years ago after the Phantom Thieves came to see him while he was recovering in Leblanc’s attic. Just ask her, even if everyone else said no, she would help. Back then he thought she was crazy. He killed her father. He caused her so much pain. So many problems he could never imagine or fathom, and she sat by Akira’s bed and took his hands and told him to only ask.  
  
Haru back then was an enigma to him.  
  
He wanted to ask her for help. But what could he say? How could she help with this? If he told her he was terrified of his own children, that he didn’t sleep because at night monstrous creatures crawled out of his wife tried to kill him, that he just wanted to run away from it, that he just wanted to undo it, that he wished they weren’t having kids at all, would she still hold his hand?  
  
Or should see him like a monster.  
  
The monster his teenage-self expected her to see. Expected them all to see.  
  
“…Thank you, Haru.” He whispered to her as he lowered his gaze. “For now, I just need to relax, like you said.”  
  
“Then relax we shall!” Haru took her hands back. “Because you’re getting the full treatment today, Goro! Just like old times! You’re going to leave that spa feeling like puddle of perfectly relaxed mush!”  
  
  
  
  
Goro laid on the couch staring up the at ceiling. A week ago, Haru took him out to treat him to a relaxing day of rest and self-care. And it had helped. He hadn’t had any nightmares lately. But that also could be partly due to the fact that he came home that night and told Akira he wanted to sleep on the couch.  
  
At first his wife didn’t understand. But Goro explained that he was worried his tossing and turning would hurt her or disrupt her. He assured Akira it was just until he was positive he would stop having these ‘stress nightmares’. And while weary of his choice she consented.  
  
Morgana was happy. It meant he had a whole side of the bed to himself.  
  
In actuality, Goro wanted to sleep on the couch because being in the bed with Akira’s protruding stomach made him so anxious he felt his digestive track was constantly begging to explode. It didn’t help that she was always touching her stomach right before she drifted off to sleep, talking to him about feeling the kids moving around and asking him if he wanted to touch them.  
  
He did not.  
  
He never wanted to.  
  
And knowing that they could feel Akira through the layers of skin made his own crawl. It made him think about them reaching through her, stretching her body like silly putty to touch him.  
  
No amount of spa days could erase that horror.  
  
But sleeping in another room, not having to think about the horrible monsters incubating in his wife, the godawful creatures that he put into her, that at least helped him breathe a bit easier. Part of him felt rotten, leaving Akira to suffer in their bed alone. But she seemed content with them. Maybe they had poisoned her mind?  
  
That’s what he used to tell himself.  
  
That he had poisoned her mind. That was why she fell in love with him. What else could it be? Why else would she defend him, help him, guide him. He had been a monster, a killer, bastard vermin that no one else would even look at- but she loved him?  
  
Oh she had been sick in the head forever.  
  
She loved a monster and now she carried two more in her.  
  
And in a few short weeks they were going to burst out of her and destroy her, just like he had destroyed his mother. And then they’d come for him… Just like he went after his father.  
  
Goro shuddered on the couch, he felt his stomach churn.  
  
He had to stop thinking about them.  
  
He wrapped his arms around himself and rolled over onto his side and faced the couch back as he tried to get some sleep. But his mind focused in on apartment. Every little noise, every little tick echoed in his ear. He could hear the faucet in the kitchen dripping every now an again. He heard the wall creak from the movements of their neighbors or the building itself settling with the slight change in temperature. He heard Akira moving ever so slightly in bed.  
  
He heard the light running pattering beats of feat across the floor of the room.  
  
Goro rolled over and looked out into the dark room.  
  
“Morgana?” The cat did not respond to him, but he saw something move across the floor. It waddled, quickly around the area before darting behind the TV stand. Goro glared across the room. “Morgana? This isn’t funny.”  
  
He pulled off his blanket and got up from the couch to inspect the room. Goro flipped on the light and saw little red foot prints across the ground. They didn’t look like they belonged to a cat. But they didn’t look human either. They were round, like something had been stomping around and just the stubs of its limbs.  
  
From behind the TV stand something black darted away. It hurried across the floor and into the kitchen area. Goro rushed after it and around the corner. He heard a cabinet close in the kitchen but didn’t see which one. He turned on the lights and slowly made his way forward, watching the doors.  
  
He reached for the knife block on the counter and drew one out quickly before scanning the room again. He picked a cabinet door on the bottom at random and flung it open, but he only saw pots and pans inside. He moved to the next and pulled it open too, only to find cleaning supplies.  
  
Over head he heard the doors rattle and Goro stepped back pointing the knife at cabinets.  
  
“Whatever you are, come out!” The cabinet’s rattled again at his shouting. Frustrated he grabbed one and flung it open only to be met with a small monster. It was all black, and bit pudgy around it’s middle. It wore a pink butterfly mask obscuring its face and had a little bonnet wrapped around its head. It had no hands or feet, instead its limbs ended in little numbs that left red and black smudged on everything it touched.  
  
Coming out of its stomach was a long black cord that it somehow held with its stumps.  
  
Goro cringed at the sight of the creature, feeling his lips curl up in disgust. The monster let out a scream like a cat before it started wiping the cord at him.  
  
“Stop! Stop!” Goro tried to block with his hands before he lunged forward with the knife and stabbed at the little monster. His knife broke through its mask and it let out a wail before falling backward. Its body started to dissolve away into red and black puss.  
  
He sighed, content he defeated the creature before all the remaining cabinets opened. Inside there were more of the things. Some with pink mask, some with blue ones. A few of them held their cords in their nonexistent hands, other’s held glasses and plates from the shelves. They all started screaming and hurling things at him at once.  
  
Goro shouted and backed up, dodging plates and cups as he fled form the kitchen.  
  
“Akira!” Goro ran for the bed room. “Akira! Wake up! We have to leave! Akira!” He flung open the bed room door and stopped cold ion his tracks.  
  
The room was covered with the horrible little monsters. They were on the floor, the bed, the dressers, but what really scared him was Akira. His wife was hanging from the ceiling. One of the black cords wrapped around her neck, her eyes had rolled back into her head and her mouth was slightly hanging open.  
  
Her body was swaying slowly back and forth as her stomach gurgled and stirred. From the inside it was being pushed on and stretched and from between her legs and endless black and red sludge poured out. Every so often with the visceral discharge a black lump would fall. It would hit the bed and start screaming until the others ripped it loose form the cord attaching it to Akira and would place a mask upon its face. It would then stand up and join the other waiting for the next monster to be born.  
  
“A-akira…” Goro dropped his knife as he felt tears welling up in his eyes. “Akira- NO!” Goro charged into he room and the little creatures grabbed onto his legs. Somehow without hands they were clawing into his clothing, tearing at his pajama bottoms and cutting into his skin. They jumped onto his back and onto his arms as they tried to stop him from disturbing Akira.  
  
“Get off of me! Let me go! You, horrible little shits! Get away form my wife! Get away from me!”  
  
Goro punched and kicked and screamed as he climbed up onto the bed. He couldn’t break the cord around her neck without his knife, so all he could so was grab her around the middle and lift her body up trying to support her.  
  
“Please! Please, Akira- Don’t leave me! Hang on!”  
  
The monsters started to attack him more viciously. Doing all that they could to get him away form Akira. Goro tried desperately to support his wife while kicking the monsters off. Finally, one of them found his knife and came charging at him. It stabbed the blade into his leg causing him to scream in pain and let go.  
  
The monsters cheered as he backed up to pull the knife out. Without a second thought he used it cut Akira down, but her life less body fell to the bed with a sickening thud.  
  
“Akira!” Goro moved to crouch over her, only to blocked by a wave of the monsters surrounding her body. At once they all began shaking her, crying chanting the word ‘Mama’ over and over again.  
  
“D-don’t- don’t you touch her!” Goro brought his knife down into one, killing it. He then turned and attacked another and another. “Don’t touch her!” The monsters resumed attacking him now that he was killing them. “Don’t act like you’re sad! You did this! You did this to her!”  
  
Goro kept cutting through the monsters.  
  
“You killed her! Horrible! Horrible little things!”  
  
He kept swinging his knife until he was exhausted. Until every single one of the monsters was dead, and he was left alone with Akira’s body.  
  
He dropped to his knees on the bed, panting and tired.  
  
“Horrible… Horrible little… Monsters….” He laid down next to Akira, his hands were shaking as he took her into his arms. “I’m so sorry… Akira I’m so sorry…” He pressed his forehead to her shoulder and started to cry.  
  
Next to him a voice spoke up, “Don’t act like you’re sad.”  
  
Goro turned his head, shocked to see two more of the little creatures still alive. One with a blue mask one with a pink mask. Each of them holding a knife.  
  
“You did this to her.” The two creatures held up their knives as Goro screamed for them to stop. He couldn’t stop them before stabbed into his flesh.  
  
  
“Goro!” Akira was calling his name.  
  
But he couldn’t answer her. He was still trying to fight off the monsters, still trying to survive.  
  
“Goro, wake up!”  
  
Their hands were on him, grabbing him, trying to hold him down as they cut him apart.  
  
“Goro, please! Wake up!” He felt a smack to the face and he finally opened his eyes.  
  
He was still on the couch, tangled up in his blanket. The lights were on, and Akira was kneeling next to him with tears in her eyes. She was gasping for air, her hands were shaking, and he hair was a tangled mess.  
  
“Goro?” She asked, her voice slightly shaky, “Goro, are you alright?”  
  
“Akira, I- you?” He looked around the room, expecting to see the creatures. But there were none. It was just another nightmare. “You- I woke you?”  
  
“Morgana woke me,” Akira reached out and took his hand. “He got up get something to eat, and said you were groaning in your sleep.”  
  
Goro turned his head to see Morgana sitting on the floor. He glared at the cat. Morgana however sat up straight in defiance.  
  
“I’m fine, I’m sorry you woke up for noth-”  
  
“You are not fine!” Akira squeezed his hand harder. “Don’t tell me you are! I watched you sleep, that was awful! You’re not fine, Goro!”  
  
He lowered his eyes to watch her hands envelope his. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want Akira to be afraid too.  
  
“Tell me what’s wrong…” Akira leaned in closer so that her forehead was pressed to his. “Please… You’ve always talked to me before without hesitation. Even when it wasn’t what was best for you.” Goro snorted, that was true. He damn near told Akira everything when he was plotting to kill her. “So why now? Why do you suddenly want to shoulder this problem alone?”  
  
Goro closed his eyes. He could lie again. But he had a feeling he wasn’t going to get out of it this time. The plan was no longer going work, just hiding behind want to make everything prefect and keep Akira stress free. Running himself down in return.  
  
“Akira,” he felt his voice crack the moment he started to speak, “I’m sorry… I don’t know how to tell you this.” He put his free hand over her’s and sighed. The act of breathing a lone made his shoulders shake. “I’m scared.”  
  
“Scared?” Akira gently rubbed her forehead back and forth, letting their bangs tangle together. “Is that why you’re trying to make it all perfect for me and the kids? You’re scared something is going to go wrong?”  
  
“No,” Goro pulled back form her. He was worried, but he wanted to look her in the eyes when he told her the truth. There was something about Akira’s eyes that always made it easier to open up. “I’m not scared for the kids… I- I’m scared of them.”  
  
Akira paused for a moment as she processed that sentence. Her silence was followed by a light chuckle, “What? Goro, they’re just babies. They’re not even her even how can you be afrai-”  
  
“They’re monsters.” He cut her off. He said it quickly, and watched her face contort in confusion. “I-I don’t know what to tell you… I didn’t want to upset you. So, I just, threw myself into getting everything ready for you. I thought if I got things ready, if I helped as much as I could, if I did all the work then I’d stop being scared… But I can’t. The closer we get to the day, the more I- I feel it. They’re monsters.”  
  
“Goro…” Akira was shocked. “How can you say that? Our kids aren’t monsters… They’re you’re kids!”  
  
“That’s why they’re monsters!” He snapped back at her. Goro pulled his hands away and ran them threw his hair holding his bangs back. “That’s why they’re monsters… I put two horrible monsters into you. And when they’re born it’s going to be awful!”  
  
Akira sat in stunned silence.  
  
“I think about every night! I think about it when I’m awake! Every time someone wants to talk about the babies I think about it! I feel it! They’re going to kill you!” He started gasping for air. “They’re going to destroy everything… And all I want is to stop it! Or get away! Or both!”  
  
“Goro,” Akira pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the couch, she grabbed the sides of his face. “Goro, stop, stop and listen to me for a second.”  
  
“-And I can’t! I can’t run away!” He pulled his hands down and grabbed her shoulders. “I can’t leave you, then you really will die… But I know if you have them you’ll die! And then I’ll be alone! But you want them! I watch you ever day and you want them so badly and you don’t know how awful they are!”  
  
“Goro. Goro, listen to me!”  
  
“NO!” He shouted at her, tears were now falling from his eyes freely. “I can’t- I can’t lose you. But I don’t want this! I don’t want them! I don’t want them here with us! I don’t want them in you! I just want to go back! I want to go back to how it was!”  
  
“Darling….” Akira let her hands fall form Goro’s face and onto his shoulders. She pulled him into a hug. “Why? Why do you feel this is what’s going to happen? I thought you were excited to be a father?”  
  
“No!” Goro kept crying. “I can’t stop feeling sick. I just want this to be over. I want them to have never been.”  
  
Akira was silent for a while. She let Goro cry. He leaned forward and cried onto her shoulder while Morgana watched. She had to think about everything her husband had said before she could start figuring out a solution.  
  
“…Do you think, they’re going to kill me because of your mother?”  
  
Goro sniffled. He was crying so hard he was gasping for breath, even hiccupping here and there. He couldn’t talk, but he managed to nod.  
  
“Your mother said you were a monster right… Do you think that that’s true?”  
  
“I-!” Goro opened his mouth and took a shuddering breath, “I know it’s true! J-just look at my life!”  
  
“I have. I am.” Akira started to stroke his back. “You’re not a monster, Goro. And your children won’t be monsters either.”  
  
Goro pressed his lips together and shook his head, “You’re wrong, Akira. You only say that because you- you stupidly married one. How can you not be afraid? Afraid that they’ll be violent and vile and murderous and hateful.”  
  
“You were only all of those things because you were alone. Our kids won’t be alone. They’ll have us, and each other.”  
  
“And me!” Morgana shouted from his place next to the couch.  
  
“And Morgana.” Akira smiled.  
  
She pulled back and made him look up at her. Akira held his gaze; her grey eyes were wide as she was smiling. God she was smiling, even after hearing the awful truth.  
  
“Our kids are going to be amazing.”  
  
“E-even if they turn out like me?”  
  
“Goro, god help me, I hope _every day_ that they turn out like you!”  
  
“W-what? Why!? I’m a- a-”  
  
“You’re determined.” Akira started talking over him. “You’re self-made. You’re smart. And from the moment you have a goal in mind you chase it down. You make plans, and you think a head and you work hard to get to that goal no matter what stand in your way.”  
  
“Even when that thing in the way is someone else’s life?”  
  
Akira let go of him and twisted her bangs around one of her fingers. “Circumstance, Goro… You were alone. You were taught to hate. You were told to kill to reach your goal. And there was a giant over blown gold cup pretending to be a god pulling your strings… So yes, all of those good traits were kind of corrupted and steered down a terrible path but- They are good traits none the less!”  
  
Akira stopped playing with her hair, “What you want them to be like me? Spoiled, lazy, and completely incapable of planning what underwear I’m even going to put on?”  
  
Goro snorted back a laugh, and stifled a sniffle, “But your empathetic, and helpful, and kind… And resilient. You certainly handle adversity much better than I do.”  
  
“Well you’re in luck, Goro. Kids are _supposed_ to have temper tantrums.”  
  
Goro snorted again, but Akira genuinely laughed. She leaned in and kissed his cheek.  
  
“Let’s make an appoint with the doctor tomorrow.”  
  
“What? Why are you sick?”  
  
“No, but you are! We’re about to have twins and you’re afraid of babies! We have to see if we can get you a psychologist or something.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m empathetic, but I can’t take care of you and two infants. I haven’t got the will power or energy of Joker anymore.”  
  
Goro laughed and wrapped his arms around her, “You say that… but I have the proof that about nine months ago you had _plenty_ of energy.”  
  
“Gross.” Morgana rolled his eyes.  
  
Goro stuck his tongue out at the cat. “You can go back to staying with Haru!”  
  
“Maybe I will, she gave me sushi every day! And I heard babies like to pull on cat tails I hear.”  
  
“That ‘sushi every day’ diet is why you’re getting fat.” Goro teased him.  
  
Akira leaned back into Goro’s embrace, “Relax, Morgana, we’ll teach the kids your tail is off limits. After all they’re children, not monsters. Right, Darling?”  
  
Goro hesitantly hummed, “Right. Children. Not monsters.”  
  
  
  
  
The fact that they were having children, not monsters was a mantra that Goro adopted the last few weeks of Akira’s pregnancy. As promised they took him to a doctor and got him set up with a therapist to see once a week for the time being.  
  
Akira left it up to him on if and when he wanted to tell their circle of friends about his phobia. And he did tell them. They were supportive, something he should have seen coming but still shocked him none the less. Haru and Makoto did express a bit of anger, not that Goro was afraid of his own children, but that he waited so long to tell anyone.  
  
It earned him two separate earfuls, one at work from Makoto and one that afternoon form Haru.  
  
Of course Ann and Ryuji offered up their home as a safe haven, if ever Goro started to feel over whelmed by his fear. One of them would come help Akira and he could take a breather at their place. Futaba also happily told him that the attic in Leblanc was still in prime condition, now with fifty percent more spiders. While Yusuke did not have much to offer in terms of advice, or reprieve from infant driven fears, he did offer to always listen and to even help Akechi see the beauty in children if he couldn’t find it himself in watching how Akira raised their children.  
  
He was grateful for the friends he had. He really needed them. Now more than ever.  
  
As he was having the freak out of his life in the delivery waiting room.  
  
Goro couldn’t manage to go into the delivery room. He got as far as the door before all of his senses demanded he stop. Ryuji tried to push him forward and failed, and in the chaos of the doctors saying to either come in to close the door somehow it was Yusuke who ended up in the delivery room to hold Akira’s hand.  
  
Goro ended up in a chair in the waiting room, with his head tilted back and his hands on his face. His heart was beating a mile a minute.  
  
“Well, look at this way, Goro,” Futaba stood behind him braiding his hair to pass the time. “At leas Inari’s already seen her naked.”  
  
“Thanks a lot, Sakura.”  
  
“Any time, Akechi.”  
  
Goro sighed and let his hands drop to his sides. Ryuji and Ann were sitting to one side of him, Haru was on the other side holding a bag that had Morgana in it.  
  
“I’m sure Akira will be fine,” Ann reassured him. “She knows you’re struggling to. Yusuke will do a good job supporting her.”  
  
“He didn’t take his sketch book in, did he?” Ryuji asked as he leaned forward in his chair.  
  
“No he didn’t,” Haru opened the back and Morgan peeked out. “I have it right here.”  
  
“Is it safe to look yet?” Morgana scanned the waiting room area.  
  
“I think the nurse at the desk went to the bathroom, so you’re good for now,” Futaba reached over to pet his head.  
  
“Sorry we’re late!” Makoto came running up to the waiting area, her sister in tow behind her. “Traffic was awful! And Sis insisted I drive the speed limit.” Makoto motioned to Sae.  
  
The woman shook her head, “Babies arriving or not, Makoto, how’s it going to look if a police officer and the Deputy Direct of SIU were pulled over?” The woman shook her head before turning to Goro. “So, you decided to wait outside?”  
  
“More like the decision was made for me.”  
  
“Oh, Goro,” Makoto half smiled, “So who went in?”  
  
“Yusuke.” Everyone answered her at once.  
  
“…Well that was a choice I guess…” Makoto took a seat but Sae kept standing.  
  
“Hey, did you all see Sojiro on your way in here?” Futaba turned to Makoto, “I called him and he said he was closing up and coming right over.”  
  
“He was entering the lobby just as our elevator closed. He’ll be here soon.”  
  
The door to the delivery room opened and a nurse pushed Yusuke out. Everyone stared at him confused.  
  
“Hmph. The nerve.” He walked over and took a seat his arms crossed.  
  
“Inari,” Futaba glared at him, “What did you do to get thrown out.”  
  
“I did nothing.” Yusuke started. “I did everything the doctor’s said I should. I held Akira’s hand. I helped her breath. I even gave her suggestions to help her relax and ease delivery.”  
  
“Hmmmn, suggestions like what?” Ryuji asked.  
  
“Suggestions like trying to picture a few my favorite historical pieces depicting women and children. When Akira said she couldn’t I helped by describing them in great detail, even posing as some of the figures-”  
  
“And there it is,” Ryuji clapped his hands together. “Never change buddy.”  
  
“You know I never have any change, Ryuji.”  
  
Goro sighed and closed his eyes. He just wanted this to be over.  
  
And it would be a good six hours before it was over. During that time Sojiro had arrived, the group had shifted seats, and placements serval times. Akira’s parents had called and spoken to everyone, but they wouldn’t be arriving until tomorrow morning, Sumaru City was a pretty long trip when traveling by car.  
  
The door to the delivery room had been opened several times, with each of the former Phantom Thieves taking a turn at jumping in to support Akira through her labor. And every time Goro had tried to be the one to enter, but every time he fell short.  
  
It was around the time that Ryuji came out and high fived Ann that the group started saying ‘baton pass’ as one exited and another entered. The nurses even eventually let Yusuke back in under the strict order that he sit still.  
  
Finally, the door opened to let Makoto and one of the doctors out.  
  
The brunette beamed at the group, “They’re here! Congratulations, Goro!”  
  
Around him everyone collectively got excited. Haru grabbed his shoulder and Ryuji pat him on the back. Goro could hear Ann and Futaba wishing him well. And Sae And Sojiro offered their polite well wishes to the new father.  
  
Goro didn’t take his eyes off Makoto. He felt his whole stomach drop out of existence.  
  
‘They’re children. Not monsters.’  
  
“Yo, stand up and go!” Morgana fussed form his bag. “You have to now!”  
  
“Oh yes! Goro, go int and see them first!” Haru helped him up to his feet. Before he knew it, hands were grabbing him and making sure he was standing easy.  
  
He had to walk forward.  
  
‘They’re children, not monsters…’ Goro swallowed and walked forward approaching the door.  
  
Makoto held up her hand as he came within reach and he raised his to clap it against her’s. She held on tight for a moment and then put her other hand over the back of his, “You’re going to do great.”  
  
She stepped aside and let the doctor lead Goro into the room.  
  
The room, was smaller than he was expecting, or maybe he felt largely out of place, shaking in the closed doorway. His hands constantly tapping at his sides as the nurses parted away to let him through. Hesitantly Goro stayed where he was until he could see Akira’s face.  
  
And see Akira’s smile and her shinning grey eyes.  
  
As long as he looked at those eyes he could walk forward. He steadily moved toward the bed and then stood over her. In her arms were two newborns, wrapped up, squirming, properly cleaned up, with their eyes shut and their mouths occasionally parting to let out a fussy cry or two.  
  
They were so small.  
  
And so pink.  
  
The nurse came over and slipped little caps over their heads to keep them warm as Goro took in the sight of the twins.  
  
They kept their hands curled into tight little balls as they fussily pressed themselves against Akira. His mind warning him they were trying to claw their way back inside.  
  
“Goro,” Akira spoke up, “Do you want to hold them?”  
  
“I-“ Goro shook as he raised his hand, “I, maybe just… One.”  
  
“Then the girl.” Akira turned to the nurse and the woman helped her but picking up the little girl form Akira’s arms and turning to Goro. She instructed him to hold up his arms. The woman placed the baby in his arm and helped him position his hands to support her body and tilt his shoulder to support her head.  
  
The entire time Goro stopped breathing. He felt at any moment the child would scream something awful and he’d drop her in fear. Drop her as she turned into some nightmarish version of what he was seeing and try to kill everyone in the room.  
  
But she didn’t.  
  
She just stayed in his arms, her hands occasionally flailing as she cried in short burst. Goro kept watching her waiting for something… Anything. And when nothing came from the infant a reaction finally came form him. He felt his chest swell as he finally breathed, his heart began to race, and he chocked as he started to cry.  
  
“Goro? Are you alright?” He turned to look at Akira, still cradling their son.  
  
“I-I don’t know…” He smiled at her, tears trickling down his face. “I, I think I’m just scared.”  
  
“Do you want to give her back, you don’t have to hold her if you can’t.”  
  
“No,” he shook his head. “I want to hold her… And that’s what’s scaring me.”  
  
Akira smiled, blinking back a few tears of her own. “I was thinking… We could name them after your mom, and my grandfather? Are you okay with that?”  
  
“…Ayako and Akinari?” Akira silently nodded. Goro laughed and bit, his shaking shoulders making the baby fuss again. “That’s a lot of ‘A’s in the house don’t you think?”  
  
“We don’t have to, if you don’t want to.” Akira giggled.  
  
“…I want to.” Goro looked down at the little girl his arms.  
  
“I’m scared. But I want you to know I love you, and I’m going to do my best for you, Ayako.”


End file.
